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Hi! My (official) name is Martin Martorell, I'm an user from the hot city of Seville, Spain. I've been in this forum for some years, but i'm not an active user by any means. I like to share a research article i made regarding the history of Overkal and early videogames in Spain (and some from Argentina). It's a subject that i liked since i was pretty young and i decided to try to research by myself the origins of videogames in my country, and specially, try to find the mind behind the Overkal. From previous posts from years ago in AtariAge i know that the Overkal is to my suprise, subject of interest (idk if this expression is used in English?) outside Spain because all the mystery around the system and being such an interesting pretty early console. So i thought that it will be a interesting subject for some users here. This post maybe it can be considered as spam because i'm basically sponsor my website, so i share some photos and history of the system here. If you are interested in more info, you can read my full research article. https://prehistoricgaming.com/en/overkal-history/ (I'm sorry if my English it's pathetic at times) What is the Overkal? (Yeah, this photo it's just a little bit "edited") Overkal is a Spanish Magnavox Odyssey clone developed by Inter Electrónica, S.A.. launched commercially around February-March 1974 at the price of between 9,000 and 10,000 pesetas in "El Corte Ingles" and other department stores and consumer electronics shops that sold Inter products. The console instead of jumper carts, uses switches for selecting 6 variants to play 8 games. The controllers are identical to the Odyssey ones and are hard-wired to the system. All the text of the box, console and games is on Spanish. Based on the documentation and testimonies i've compilated from people related to Inter Electrónica and from who know the console, i'm really sure to say that the Overkal it's the first home videogame console in history designed and commercially produced outside the US, and also the second home videogame console in history. And obviously, the first pirate game console system in history. (Overkal "The Third Channel In Your TV", in Spain we had only 2 TV channels at that time) Sorta like Magnavox in the US, Inter Electrónica was a big consumer electronics brand in Spain during the 1950s until the late 1970s, producing radio receivers, TVs sets and portables radios. The company was purchased by Grundig in 1978, becaming "Inter-Grundig". The Overkal was designed in the first half of 1973 by Santiago Arcocha, an ambulance driver who was passionated by electronics and innovation since he was a student in the 1940s. His design was filed at the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office in May 7, 1973, with the name "Dispositivo electrónico para la modulación y gobierno del haz en un tubo de rayos catódicos" (Electronic Device for Modulating and Controlling the Beam in a Cathode Ray Tube) (ES414491A1). This document shows a design for a TV game system that uses 6 switches for selecting games and hard-wired controllers. This registry is possibly the third patent in history for a TV game. The first patent obviously belong to the one Ralph Baer filed for the Brown Box, and the second one was filed for a Odyssey-based system (JPS49147924U) in Japan by Sharp Corporation on April 9, 1973. Although, they never materialized this idea. Because of their interest in common when they were young, Santiago Arcocha had a long friendship with Rafael Gómez Aparicio, Inter Electrónica's distribution and commercial director. Because of that, it's really easy to assume Santiago offered his design to Inter to be materialized and commercialized. The "Overkal" was developed in the second half of 1973, being finished around late November and early December. The design of the console and controller cases were filed in the Spanish Industrial Property Registry in December 4, 1973. And this is some photos of adverts and things i compiled. I hope you enjoy this post!!
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Not much information or pictures is around for the Intellivision games that were released in Mexico. I have acquired some with the help of a good friend! They are some differences in packaging versus the U.S. releases. Spanish manual, and some games have spanish name Spanish guarentee insert (some have) Sticker on front bottom of box (some have) Cartridges have 'M' stamped into them. (9 of the 10 shown have M stamped on cartridge) Other than that, the box, cart sticker, and english manual are the same. A few other pics are located here from Intellivisioner. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/192817-spanish-donkey-kong-box/ front of boxes inside boxes close up of sticker on box 'M' stamped on cartridge spanish manuals guarentee insert football manual with spanish playbook manuals fine print up close manual fine print back of manuals. most have numbers stamped on them astrosmash high scores! inside of baseball manual back of manual mattel logo
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Hello, everyone, As I think an item like this needs an introduction, I will proceed to do so. I'm Marçal and I'm both a retrogaming enthusiast and a researcher. One of my interests was the Overkal console, which I finally was able to prove that it was available at least early 1974 and, thus, making it the first European game console. We presented our findings in the History of Games conference back in 2020 although I had previously written about everything in my website (https://retromaquinitas.com/catalogo/consolas/espanolas/overkal/) and in specialised magazines such as the RetroGamer's Spanish version. So, you know, I'm at least a bit knowledgeable about this machine, which is an Odyssey clone with a few clever twists (quoting Baer himself). I often get questions through the website and people also contact me for assessing the value of their consoles (which I rarely have a definite answer to, as I'm not really here for the "economy" part). However, very rarely, I get a contact from someone who owns an Overkal. This usually means just a quick valuation (which, again, I can't provide) but this time a person contacted me and shipped their console to me so I could check it and help them with its sale. I already own an Overkal console, so, I thought this could be a place where someone could be interested in taking care of such piece of history. Without further ado, let's get to the item. A few pictures are attached, but here go some details: The console is aesthetically in very good shape and color, at least in the top side and all laterals. The battery cover is missing and there is rust in the contacts. However, the console also can be powered with a 9V adapter similar to the Atari 2600's, for instance (center positive 3,5mm jack). There are also a couple cable marks (the typical "melted" marks). There are three of the seven "large" overlays (tennis, cat/mouse and roulette, I believe) and the full set of smaller overlays. The roulette board is also included, as is the paper money. Note how all these are exactly the same as the Odyssey ones but adapted: Spanish translation and Pesetas instead of Dollars. The switchbox is also included although it is quite irrelevant. The box is in a very decent shape, even though it has a bit of tape in its corners. Other than that, it is also representative to see the "El Corte Inglés" price stickers (a department store in Spain where it was sold) on it. Two inners are missing (the console cardboard and one controller). Controllers are good even though one of them is starting to lose the adhesive on the wooden part. The inside, except for the battery connector, is clean and without rust or corrosion of any kind. The buttons (power and games) work as intended. No manual. Does it work? Good question. I got this one sent to my place, and I don't have my consoles and TVs here, so I couldn't use a 70s TV to fine tune it. I tried my best in a modern TV: The signal in these 50-year old consoles is often not strong enough (or I'm unable to tune or fine-tune it in this TV). My power supply had a reading of current consumption that seemed reasonable - even though maybe on the low side, below 30mA - and it fluctuated when changing games. So, at least, there doesn't seem to be any shortcut or similar. So, I will list it as non working. Feel free to ask any other question; I don't have a set price for it (and, as said, it is not even mine in the first place) so, even though I'll be the one shipping the console, please keep in mind that any offer will need to go through the actual owner who I'm helping. You can contact me through this thread or via DM, but please express your interest beforehand so I can keep track of the request order. Thank you,
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I have an interesting joystick from Spain: Telemach 200. I'm looking to trade for other rare joysticks. The joystick has arcade components, Industria Lorenzo stick. It has a 9 pin connector. I use it on 2600. There is a switch on the back for other systems, (Amiga?). There are 4 suction cups on the bottom. I'm most interested in homebrew joysticks. But also various rare or quality that I don't already have. I mainly play 2600. Also Vectrex. I can use db15 gameport analog joysticks on Atari with an adapter that I have, which I like and which is another trade option. Possibly arcade or industrial joystick components. Old Pong console modded to work as VCS Paddle controllers!!!! ... Atari Game Brain, H.E.R.O., Montezuma's Revenge... VecMulti for Vectrex..